Posted on 09/22/2009 7:47:30 AM PDT by CWW
McChrystal to resign if not given resources for Afghanistan
By Bill RoggioSeptember 21, 2009 4:17 PM
Within 24 hours of the leak of the Afghanistan assessment to The Washington Post, General Stanley McChrystal's team fired its second shot across the bow of the Obama administration. According to McClatchy, military officers close to General McChrystal said he is prepared to resign if he isn't given sufficient resources (read "troops") to implement a change of direction in Afghanistan:
Adding to the frustration, according to officials in Kabul and Washington, are White House and Pentagon directives made over the last six weeks that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, not submit his request for as many as 45,000 additional troops because the administration isn't ready for it.
In the last two weeks, top administration leaders have suggested that more American troops will be sent to Afghanistan, and then called that suggestion "premature." Earlier this month, Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that "time is not on our side"; on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urged the public "to take a deep breath."
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In Kabul, some members of McChrystal's staff said they don't understand why Obama called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" but still hasn't given them the resources they need to turn things around quickly.
Three officers at the Pentagon and in Kabul told McClatchy that the McChrystal they know would resign before he'd stand behind a faltering policy that he thought would endanger his forces or the strategy.
"Yes, he'll be a good soldier, but he will only go so far," a senior official in Kabul said. "He'll hold his ground. He's not going to bend to political pressure."
On Thursday, Gates danced around the question of when the administration would be ready to receive McChrystal's request, which was completed in late August. "We're working through the process by which we want that submitted," he said.
The entire process followed by the military in implementing a change of course in Afghanistan is far different, and bizarrely so, from the process it followed in changing strategy in Iraq.
For Afghanistan, the process to decide on a course change began in March of this year, when Bruce Reidel was tasked to assess the situation. This produced the much-heralded yet vague "AfPak" assessment. Then, in May, General David McKiernan was fired and replaced by General McChrystal, who took command in June. General McChrystal's assessment hit President Obama's desk at the end of August, almost three months after he took command. And yet now in the last half of September, the decision on additional forces has yet to be submitted to the administration.
Contrast this with Iraq in the fall of 2006. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was fired just one day after the elections in early November. The Keane-Kagan plan for Iraq was submitted to President Bush shortly afterward, and encompassed both the assessment of the situation and the recommended course of action, including the recommended number of troops to be deployed to deal with the situation. General David Petraeus replaced General George Casey in early February 2007, and hit the ground running; the surge strategy was in place, troops were being mustered to deploy to Iraq, and commanders on the ground were preparing for and executing the new orders. The first of the surge units began to arrive in Iraq only weeks later, in March.
Today, the military is perceiving that the administration is punting the question of a troop increase in Afghanistan, and the military is even questioning the administration's commitment to succeed in Afghanistan. The leaking of the assessment and the report that McChrystal would resign if he is not given what is needed to succeed constitute some very public pushback against the administration's waffling on Afghanistan.
If you ask me, this story is a plant, designed to set McChrystal up for a confrontation with the administration. In such a situation, itll be 10 to 1, that hes fired. And the request for extra troops falls on the sword, along with McChrystal.
Sounds like an Obamba camp plant to me.
Bill Roggio describes the internal struggle over Afghan war policy. The account suggests that consensus has somehow not been reached within the administration and that there are now serious divisions within the senior leadership about where the campaign in Afghanistan is going next. Policy debates - WOTH COMMENTS -—> http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/09/22/policy-debates/
Charles Krauthammer: While our Troops are being shot at, Obama’s preparing for Letterman - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxi2IILt8sk
I was thinking the same thing, but not from obama. I think it was someone in the military who wants these despicable actions BY McChrystal AND obama to see the light of day. McChrystal did NOT threaten to resign, but they are making it LOOK like he did. This is HIS strategy, but our Troops are being killed over it.
They are boxing McChrystal in.
The media has a twisted view of what is going on over there, and the Republicans who think this is a surge on the order of the Iraq surge are mistaken.
The McChrystal assessment that leaked makes it very clear that he wants these Troops for babysitting duty...and that he KNOWS their lives are in far more danger under the conditions he is overseeing. He says he KNOWS we will take more casualties but “we” have to be willing to take the risk in order to get the Afghan “people” to “trust us.”
It’s crap. All of it.
Arc Light the poppy fields,,,Kill the poppy farmers,,,
Cut them/money off at the knees!!!
Bomb that border area to ashes,,,
Both sides,,,
Be done with it...
Great list, PhiKapMom - I don't get the trip to Ghana - what's the significance there? Thanks.
I agree and back General McChrystal 100%.
Ping for later
What is your opinion on his sending U.S. Carrriers to the Suez Canal? To stop the Egyptians closing.
The reason for Ghana is that the trip made no sense on why he went there instead of other African countries except Pres Bush visited there (who had a much larger turnout then Obama). I wanted to see the percent Muslim in Ghana and then learned that for the smaller percentage of Muslims, they have a large number in the Administration and in law enforcement which makes no sense.
One reason why I put in his first trip to Africa hoping someone would come up with an explanation of why Ghana and not Kenya which would have made more sense.
You're right - it's odd. Any ideas so far?
I did find it odd that in an African country with a smaller Muslim population, their VP is Muslim. I had to wonder if he went there to meet and give him advice on what to do to become President. After what he has done with Honduras, I have to wonder about Obama’s motives. He was also involved in the Kenyan elections as a Senator.
Maybe someone has a better explanation — so far I haven’t heard one.
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NEVER FORGET
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CLARITY =
MEL’s -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~aloharonnie/
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~anita1/
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NEVER FORGET
.
.
NEVER FORGET
.
CLARITY =
MEL’s -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~aloharonnie/
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~anita1/
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NEVER FORGET
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NEVER FORGET
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And now...
They are still soldiers
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66978
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NEVER FORGET
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Bump to current situation.
Money drop. It’s been done before.
Doing the right thing...BUMP
BTTT
Ghana runs through the entire OBAMA AFRICAN COLONIAL story, I’ve been trying to put the pieces together on the thread, scroll through over 400 comments for background:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278969/posts
lots of history, lots of african-american involvement, starts with WEB Du Bois, Maya Angelou, MalcolmX.
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